Moving has an absolutely gorgeous vocal arrangement on it, and carries a great intro for what would be the debut album of arguably one of the greatest female artists of all time
Track 2, Saxophone offers some fantastic instrumentation as implied by the title of the track, and Kate Bush just seemingly owning the stage with her very fluid lyrics. It has some shimmering keyboard, and a beautiful saxophone as the title suggests. It’s a very great track and really foreshadows some of the music that was to come from Kate Bush on some of her more musically daring albums such as Hounds of Love.
Strange Phenomena though not a bad track at all the vocal delivery here is something that seems locked more so in that old traditional dance hall style of music that was really booming ten years prior. So by today’s standards it feels as a track it feels a little dated to an extent. Though this is not in anyway a slight to the sheer talent Kate Bush displays on this album, her pure melodic presence is astounding especially for a 19 year old trying to find her own sound. Kite is a strikingly annoying piece production wise, the winding up style synthesiser driving things here leaves little to be desired. The track seemingly locked and anchored in the bizarre synth that sounds like an advertisement from the days they realised that voiceovers needed a bed behind them to make the advertisement more effective.
The Man With a Child in His Eyes is a piano ballad that is rather brilliant. Kate Bushes pure talent driving through relentlessly as she goes over the top of this atmospheric piano, backed by a synthesiser. Her lyrical content being quite drawing, and delivered in the way that would have you believe that 19 year old Kate Bush is a seasoned veteran in this field. An astounding track show casing talent.
Wuthering Heights is the complete bombshell that you could hope for on a debut album, the track so good that when I listen to this thing digitally I sometimes get caught up with just replaying the damn thing (and I’m usually an album sequence purest). Kate Bush really storming through with an absolutely gorgeous track. One of the most stunning of her career inspired by the book of the same name. An 18 year old Kate Bush took to pen and paper and crafted the biggest track of her career, her first number one. It feels so inspired and important, the lyrics delivered with such a beauty about them. It’s absolutely astounding. And that completely slick guitar solo from Ian Bairnson is so slick and perfectly executed it’s unbelievable.
James And The Cold Gun was a track in the running to be the first single before Kate fought for Wuthering Heights, and you can sorta see why. The tune a little bit more immediate and slightly less experimental in the terms of a driving melody. It’s a decent tune but does fall a little into a theatrical slump, I mean this thing even has a piano breakdown at the end of it before it builds back up to a moody guitar solo.
L’Amour Looks Something Like You is a completely enchanting song, it draws so much beauty. It’s a song where I think so many different meanings can be drawn. But there is a real sexual energy in the lyrics here, and the astounding confidence in Bush’s delivery here leaves the listener longing for so much more, and all you can do is hit that replay button yet again!
It feels wrong to an extent giving an album with tracks as spectacular as Wuthering Heights on, and as seemingly beautiful as L’Amour Looks Something Like You, anything less than full marks. But unfortunately this album falls short in places. Tracks like Kite carrying an irritating gimmick of sounds, trading beauty for catchiness.
If this album symbolises anything, to me it’s that beauty and talent will always shine through and I’ll be damned if Kate Bush wasn’t already displaying the qualities that would go on to have her defined as one of the best artists of an entire era and time of music. The boundaries she pushed at her height were clearly foreshadowed in this album, an album that was very boundary pushing in itself as far as exploring female sexuality and pure female dominance goes in music. She isn’t just your doll, this lady is an absolute musical machine.
